by Natalia Mittelstadt
Democrats’ opposition to Republican congressional legislation that would require proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections is being met with backlash and suspicion.
“Why are Democrats so adamantly opposed to ensuring that only American citizens vote in our elections?” Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson asked Monday. The X above republished a Fox News article about just such a backlash.
Republicans have introduced a bill in the House and Senate that would ensure that only US citizens can vote in federal elections. Democrats oppose it, saying it is unnecessary. Supporters of the bill speculate that Democrats want to allow illegal immigrants to vote in US elections.
In May, Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, and Representative Chip Roy, Republican of Texas, Introduced the Protecting America’s Voting Rights Act (SAVE)which would amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to require states to require people registering to vote in federal elections to provide documentation proving their citizenship and to require states to remove noncitizens from their voter registration rolls.
While non-citizens are voting ban in federal, state and most local elections in California, Maryland, Vermont and Washington, allow non-citizens to vote in local elections.
“Illegal immigrants and noncitizens across the country are being improperly registered to vote, allowing them to cast illegal votes in federal elections.” Lee said in the introduction of the draft bill.
“At a time when confidence in voting is more important than ever, we must stop foreign election interference and pass the SAVE Act. Voting is both a sacred right and a duty of American citizenship, and allowing people from other countries access to our elections is a serious blow to our security and self-government.”
Chamber Administration Committee passed the SAVE Act at the end of May.
After the bill was rejected by the Rules Committee on Monday and the House voted on it on Tuesday, final passage of the bill in the Republican-controlled House could come as early as Wednesday.
This Senate version was referred to the Rules and Administration Committee after its submission in May.
Last week, the office of House Minority Leader Katherine Clark, whose job it is to recommend how rank-and-file members of the conference vote on bills colleagues encouraged “VOTE NO” on the SAVE Act.
“As we have seen time and again in this Congress, House Republicans continue to irresponsibly question the credibility of our elections,” the statement read. “Despite numerous recounts, court challenges, and in-depth analysis by conservative think tanks, there is no evidence of the widespread fraud that this bill allegedly targets. Under current law, it is already illegal for noncitizens to register to vote or vote in federal elections.”
On the social platform X, Tim Pool, host of the Timcast IRL podcast, Axios story republished on Democrats opposing the SAVE Act, asking, “What? Why? Who disagrees?”
Elon Musk replied to Pool’s post, writing: “Because they want to cheat.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson shared a Fox News article about Democrats’ opposition to the SAVE Act, writing on X, “Why are Democrats so adamantly opposed to ensuring that only American citizens vote in our elections? They want to turn illegal immigrants into voters. We need to pass the SAVE Act to prevent that.”
On Friday, Musk reposted Johnson’s previous posts on the measure and wrote: “Those who oppose this are traitors. All capital letters: TRAITORS. What is the punishment for traitors?”
Biden Administration published a political statement Monday in opposition to the House of Representatives bill.
“The Administration strongly opposes HR 8281, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act. It is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections – a federal crime punishable by imprisonment and fines.
“The alleged justification for this bill is based on easily disprovable falsehoods. Furthermore, making false claims of citizenship or voting illegally in an election is punishable by removal from the United States and permanent inadmissibility. States already have effective safeguards in place to verify voter eligibility and maintain the accuracy of voter rolls.”
Still, Republicans and others fear — amid broader concerns about voter fraud — that non-citizens will vote in the November presidential election, most likely for Democratic President Joe Biden.
Roy published on X in response to the administration’s statement: “We in the @HouseGOP have our own SAP – Statement of Uncanny Policy – a common sense requirement that we require proof of US citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. Democrats are opposing what over 80% of Americans want.”
Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., said Monday on the television show “Just the News, No Noise” that Biden Democrats “have a very compromised candidate at the top of the ticket” who they “have to get across the finish line.”
“They have to get more people to vote” for Biden, Tenney said of Democrats. “How? They’re going to do that through noncitizen voting.”
“If they can make sure that we don’t have citizenship requirements, then those foreigners, those millions, 10 million or more people who have crossed our border, will be able to vote in our elections, and that could determine the outcome of the election,” she said.
As for the likelihood of the bill passing the House, then the Democratic-controlled Senate, Tenney said, “I think we have the clear votes in the House, we’re not going to get the votes in the Senate unless something happens in the next few months.” [Sen. Bob] Menendez, and we can get some Democrats who are in tough districts to understand that they need to support the people’s vote.”
If Menendez is found guilty in his federal corruption trial, he could resign after closing arguments, further shrinking the Democrats’ already slim majority.
Although Democrats repeatedly claim that non-citizen voting is not a problem, it is a nonprofit organization that cares about election integrity, and the states have shown otherwise.
In May, J. Christian Adams, president of the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), testified at a hearing of the House Administration Committeesaying, “Noncitizens do get on the U.S. voter rolls, and some of them do vote. The data shows that most often, noncitizens get on the rolls through the voter registration process, either through machines or through third-party registration drives.”
House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil, a Wisconsin Republican, said during the hearing that 500 non-citizens are registered to vote in Washington, DC
According to the PILF report from May last year, Chicago Records shows that since 2007, 394 foreign citizens have been removed from the city’s electoral registers, with 20 of them casting 85 votes.
Also this month, Virginia removed 1,481 voter registrations due to non-U.S. citizenship.
In April 2023 PILF reported Maricopa County, Arizona, records show that 222 foreign citizens have been removed from the county’s voter rolls since 2015, with nine of them casting 12 votes in four federal elections.
According to PILF Report for FebruarySince 2021, 186 registered people have been removed from the voter rolls in Pima County, Arizona, due to lack of U.S. citizenship. Of those, seven cast ballots in two federal and local elections.
Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, North Dakota, and Ohio have included provisions in their state constitutions that state, prohibits non-citizens from voting.
Meanwhile, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, South Carolina and Wisconsin will hold ballots this year where voters will be able to decide whether foreigners should be banned from voting in state elections.
Arizona split the electionin which residents who provide proof of U.S. citizenship can vote in all elections, while the rest can only vote in federal elections, meaning that votes are cast by voters who have not provided proof of U.S. citizenship.
At least about 5800 federal only votes was to throw in the November 2020 Arizona presidential election.
The Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that Arizona must accept U.S. voter registration forms because of federal requirements under the NVRA. Federal voter registration forms only require people filling them out to sign a sworn statement that they are U.S. citizens.
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Natalia Mittelstadt is a reporter for Just the News.
Photo “Katherine Clark” by Congresswoman Katherine Clark. Background of the photo “United States Capitol Building” by
Ivan Dražić.
